Moments of Grace

This life is a beautiful labyrinth to embrace, and I choose to live in a state of grace as often as possible. My reflections here speak to these moments of living in grace, celebrating and honoring life just as it is. I invite you to honor the distinctive labyrinth of your own life, knowing that yours may look very different from others' labyrinths.

Friday, December 23, 2011

It has been sometime
since I last posted an article here. Since then, I've moved my blog over to my
latest website. Just follow the link below, and you can subscribe to my
articles through the RSS Feed (orange button to the right):

Friday, October 7, 2011

We’re saddened by the
passing of Steve Jobs on Wednesday. Whether or not you liked his leadership
style or how he got things done, you’ll agree that he’ll go down history as a phenomenal
innovator. Yet, from what I can tell, what has gone viral on social media since
his passing isn’t how to build great technologies. Instead, they are:

* His
2005 commencement speech at Stanford University urging all to do what we love and
never settle for anything less. (A previous “Moments of Grace” article
was inspired by this speech.)

* A
quote from him that urges us all to listen to our intuition and our hearts.

Love, intuition and
heart? All heart-based and right-brain stuff that defies logic and rational
reasoning of the left brain, the backbone of the corporate world and western
society. Yet, because these recommendations come from a venerable titan of the face-paced
technology world, they make even the toughest skeptic among us pause and ponder.
More importantly, the fact that these words of Jobs’ went viral means that apparently
they really struck a deep cord within many of us--even those who’d normally
roll their eyes over mentions of such touchy-feeling things as intuition and
heart.

Assuming you’re on
board Jobs’ urging to listen to your intuition, let’s talk about that. Our
intuition speaks to us in a number of different ways. There are two simple
practices you can develop to access your intuition.

Meditation – Quieting your rational mind is the
best way to access your intuitive wisdom. Don’t believe me? Jobs meditated
regularly. Choose a style that works for you, whether it’s focusing on your
breath, a word or a mantra, or any other style that resonates with you for
quieting your mind. You don’t have to meditate for hours and hours. Even 10 to 15
minutes a day will do wonders in strengthening your connection to your
intuition.

Hot-penning – That’s basically a form of
journaling which is more a “heart-dump” or “gut-dump” than a “brain-dump.” Set
a timer for 5 to 10 minutes, preferably first thing in the morning before your
get-things-done rational mind kicks into full gear or when you can find the
time and space to relax and be receptive to insights. Until the timer goes off,
just write whatever stream of consciousness surfaces. Don’t think or worry
about grammar, spelling, etc.

Whether or not we
choose to tap into our intuition, the wisdom, knowing and unbounded creativity is
always there within us waiting for us to pay attention. Dreams are one means
through which our intuition sends messages to us. When we’re in deep sleep, our
rational mind is shut down, but our intuition remains awake and active. Its
wisdom regarding any situation we happen to be facing comes through dreams. I’ll
write a separate article on dreams another time.

Besides dreams, there
are also the four types of “Clair,” the French root for clarity. That is, our
intuition often offers us clarity for whatever we’re facing in our lives. When Jobs
recommended that we listen to our intuition, he basically urged us to get
clarity on what we love from our inner wisdom, to listen to our inner voice. The
four types of “Clair” are:

*Clairvoyance
– clarity through seeing images and pictures

*Clairaudience
– clarity through hearing messages, often soundless

*Clairsentience
– clarity through feelings and sensations

*Claircognizance
– clarity through knowing without reason

If you’ve ever seen
pictures in your mind’s eye, heard a voiceless message, felt an unexplainable sensation
in your body, and/or known something out of the blue without understanding why,
it was your intuition messaging to you. We’re all “Clair” in some way, but it
requires us to drop our skepticism and allow the messages to come through.

Don’t worry if you
aren’t yet ready to pay attention to dreams or any of the “Clair”s. Develop a
regular meditation and/or hot-penning practice. The key is to allow your inner
voice – your intuition, your heart, your gut – some regular airtime, so that it
doesn’t get drowned out by others’ expectations and prescriptions of how you
should live.

Live the life you’re
born to live. Listen to Steve Jobs.

Why not share your experience of accessing or following intuitive guidance in the comment box below?

Friday, September 30, 2011

In my last article two weeks ago, I alluded to feeling overwhelmed and needing to back off from forcing a plan to happen. The full story is that I was guided to surrender when I spent sometime meditating on Labor Day earlier this month. To truly surrender is to allow the Divine, whom I feel as my Beloved, to take the lead as I continue to follow my calling to serve in ways that stretch my comfort, that I don't have to labor alone to make things happen.

The Labor Day meditation was a very profound experience that left me in a tender place for the last few weeks. I shared this experience, along with a bit of the background leading up to it, at Conscious Living Center on September 18. It was the most vulnerable I've allowed myself to be in a public setting. I'd like to offer the recording from that talk (about 12 minutes long) as a special installment of "Moments of Grace":

I've learned that faith isn't a threshold we cross over once after which everything is easy. Instead, it's a series of conscious choices to keep saying "yes" to what we came into this life to fulfill, even if we can't see the entire picture but only one step at a time. We can't force a plan to happen, which only creates unnecessary hard work and frustration. Instead, trust that the universe has our back, listen for guidance, and do what's ours to do one step at a time. In short, surrender to being led by universal wisdom and love.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Can you relate to this
scenario: You’ve been diligently researching and studying what you need to know
in order to build your business or advance in your chosen line of work. You’ve
heard from innumerable experts showing you a rainbow of success recipes that you
should follow. You’ve come to a point of feeling completely saturated by all
these recommendations and “must-dos.” Instead of feeling empowered to go forth
and create your own breakthrough, you feel overwhelmed by the plethora of endless
choices? You’re hard pressed to get your arms around your own plan. What are
you to do?

That was my
experience, and I felt paralyzed by the feelings of overwhelm. I learned that sometimes, the best plan is not having one
for a while. Clearly, having plans is important, as it keeps us organized and marching
toward our goals or fulfilling our responsibilities. However, there are real limits to plans, and trying to
force one to happen could quickly become all-consuming, overwhelming and
utterly counter-productive. Besides, it's grossly unkind to ourselves to keep pushing. We deserve a break.

Planning is the forte
of our logical and rational left brain. When we develop and execute on a plan,
we run our masculine energy – this is true for men and women. This is only one
half of our capabilities. Our right brain houses our unbounded creativity and
receptivity to ideas and inspiration. It’s our feminine side that’s associated
with intuition, as well as knowing something without reasoning. Whereas masculine
energy is directive and take-charge, feminine energy is about allowing and
receiving. Those of us who have spent a lot of time in the business world
and/or getting formally educated in the sciences or business have had a lot
more training and practice in running our masculine energy. Again, this is true
whether you’re a man or a woman. We weren’t taught in college/graduate school
or encouraged in our work life to tap into our feminine energy, to let our
right-brain creativity lead the way.

When we can’t come up
with a plan or the plan we have isn’t going well, the knee-jerk reaction is to push
forward; perhaps we didn’t try hard enough. But that’s counter-productive, and
can only lead to overwhelm. It’s a sign that we have over-burdened our left
brain and over-taxed our masculine side. Einstein said that we cannot solve a
problem by staying at the level consciousness that created it. If we keep
pushing the plan to force it to happen, it only exacerbates the problem – and the
feelings of overwhelm. Instead, a more productive move is to cease frantic
action, to get in touch with our feminine side for ideas and insights to
emerge. This is the choice of allowing
what eludes our rational mind to come forward. This is how we rise above the consciousness associated with the
problematic plan, to get us unblocked and unstuck.

Since so few of us
were taught how to tap into our feminine energy and unleash our right-brain
capabilities, what do we do? Here are a few practices:

1.Meditation – Cultivate a practice of quieting your
busy mind, so that you learn to tune into your inner wisdom and creativity. Don’t
be concerned about which style of meditation to practice. What’s important is developing
a habit of meditating regularly, working up to doing so daily. Even 10 to 15 minutes
a day would do wonders for you.

2.Journaling/hot-penning – Set a timer for 10 minutes, and
write non-stop from your heart until the timer goes off. Do this first thing in
the morning, if you can, or when you can get into a relaxed space. This isn’t a
brain-dump or a planning session. This is an opportunity for your inner wisdom
and creativity to speak to you. Pose a question and wait for insights to come,
such as:

oWhat
do I need to know?

oWhat
is trying to emerge from this situation?

oWhat
am I not seeing that would be good for me to see?

oWhat
do I get to create today?

oWhat
is the highest vision for [my career, this project, etc.]?

Note that answers to your question
may come in the form of words, images or sensations. Just notice and record
them in your journal or sketchbook.

3.Pay
attention to synchronistic messages
– Experiment with posing a question (like the ones in #2 above). Then, pay
attention to billboards, casual conversations, radio/TV/banner ads, songs, publications,
etc. Seemingly random messages may come to you from these sources containing
insights to your question. If you’re really new to this practice, start with asking
about something little, and notice what you see or hear within a couple of days
of your asking the question.

When the masculine
side of us is on overload, the best plan is no plan for a while. This creates
the space for our feminine side to allow insights to be revealed to us. At a
practical level, when we’re overwhelmed and our battery is running near or on empty,
we need to stop doing and just be, so that we can recharge. The last thing our
overwhelmed self needs is more pushing and doing. Instead, it needs some nurturing and loving before more creation through us can flourish.

It'll take some conscious
practice – especially for those of us Type-A, chart-the-course personalities –
to resist the knee-jerk reaction to continue doing and pushing. But,
ultimately, the best approach is one that’s balanced. It’s one that leverages a
true partnership between our masculine and feminine sides. It’s one that allows
for the time and space for receiving insights and the time and space for taking
purposeful, inspired action.

What
are your perspectives on planning and allowing insights to come to you? What do
you do when you feel overwhelmed by creating and following plans?

~~~~~~~~~

You can find a more
detailed discussion of using a balanced approach with both masculine and
feminine energy in the Introduction Chapter of REACH Your Dreams: Five Steps to be a Conscious Creator in Your Life.
Find out more about REACH here.

If you love my book,
I’d be so grateful if you’d consider writing a couple sentences about it on amazon.com.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Have
you ever had a song pop into your mind out of the blue? Have you turned on the radio
or walked into a café just in time to catch a song playing that’s particularly
meaningful to you? Did you ever pay attention to the lyrics, the mood of the
song, and why that particular song intruded your consciousness, when you were
just going about your day minding your own business?

That
song may seem like a random coincidence, but it isn’t. It is synchronicity at
work. Synchronicity occurs when seemingly random events provide us with answers
or assistance at just the right time when we’re pondering something or feeling
stuck. Of course, it requires us to pay attention and be ready to receive this
information or help.

Do You Believe in Magic?

I am
a huge fan of synchronicity, and have had profound insights delivered to me via
what might appear otherwise to be random incidents. For instance, sometime between
4:17 and 4:19 am this past Saturday, my clock fell onto my living room floor,
producing a loud crash that jolted me awake. That clock has been hung on the same
wall for over 4 years. It isn’t too heavy for the dry wall. It was as if someone
lifted it from the wall and dropped it on the floor. Just the day before the “clock
crash”, I had posed a question to the universe. The numbers 417 to 419 – the approximate
time of the incident – gave me very supportive answers to my question. It was
pure magic in a way but also very real at the same time. While I don’t
necessarily want things to crash left and right in my house – thank you very
much! – I appreciate the insights that came through with the timing of the “clock
crash.”

Synchronistic
insights also come to me through music. The last time this happened was on
Labor Day this week while in meditation. I was in the process of accessing
intuitive wisdom regarding my next steps with REACH, as I focused in turn on
seven different energy centers in my body, also known as chakras. When it got
to my heart chakra, which is the energy center for giving and receiving love, I
saw a picture of reindeers and Santa getting ready to deliver presents. When I
asked why I was seeing that picture, what I got was that innocent children
still believe and have yet to be tainted by life. My REACH work is meant to
help restore innocent, untainted love, faith and hope in others’ hearts. As
this insight was coming to me, I heard the song, “Do you believe in magic?” My
REACH mission is about restoring faith in the magic of life. It was a beautiful
message to come from and through my heart center. It has stayed with me all
week, and now I want to share it with you.

You, too,
have access to this magic; everyone has. The universe is constantly there
ready to help you. That is, if you believe and pay attention. Otherwise, you’ll
miss the loving support that’s available to you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
However smart and capable you are, know that there’s an amazing force beyond
the comprehension of the human mind available to you. You can tap into this
force to help you fulfill what you need to do, to give you answers and
assistance when you’re in doubt or feel stuck.

The
choice is ultimately yours. You can choose to try to make everything happen all
on your own, or you can tap into universal wisdom to help lighten your load. If
you choose the latter, pay attention the next time a song pops into your head,
or when you see a number or number sequence that catches your attention for any
reason, or when different people seem to be saying the same thing to you at
unrelated events. In short, pay attention to what otherwise appear to be random
coincidences. When you do pay attention, chances are you’ll gain insights that
would otherwise elude your rational mind, no matter how powerful it is. Your
rational mind only runs about 5% of your life on a day to day basis. What about
the other whopping 95%, give or take? Do you really want to leave all of that up to chance and randomness?

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About Me

I'm an author, speaker and coach, and, most of all, a lifelong student and practitioner of conscious living. I'm most passionate about helping others empower themselves to live passionately and joyfully in love and grace, always honoring who they are and where they are on their path.
I'm really excited about my recently released book on self-empowerment, titled "REACH Your Dreams: Five Steps to be a Conscious Creator in Your Life." It's a five-step system to help readers shift from approaching life as victims of circumstances to being powerful creators of desired experiences.
Prior to devoting my energy to spreading the message of REACH to help as many people as possible, I've been truly blessed with great career success as a former award-winning researcher and professor at Cornell University, and a market research and business consultant.
Visit my official website at www.dralicechan.com to learn more and to download a *FREE* REACH Your Dreams companion workbook.